1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatuses and methods for ornamental piercing of body parts. Particularly, the present invention relates to apparatuses and methods for a hand-operated body piercing instrument.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, body piercing has become an increasingly common practice in the U.S. and throughout the world. The practice is rapidly becoming a routine procedure, often performed by laypersons without medical experience or training. Presently, a number of manually operated devices are available that allow for the safe, hygienic, user-friendly piercing of body parts. Examples of such systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,343 issued to Reil on Mar. 5, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,170 issued to Reil on Aug. 11, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,774 issued to Reil on Feb. 9, 1999, U.S. Pat. No. 6,599,306 issued to Reil on Jul. 29, 2003 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/929,508 by Reil, filed Aug. 14, 2001, all of which are incorporated by reference herein.
The various piercing systems that exist today essentially comprise a stud (also called an earring or a piercing earring) with a post (also called a pin or a piercing pin) and a nut (sometimes called a clasp) that are mounted in a cartridge. During the piercing process, the body part (e.g. an ear lobe) is placed between the post and the nut and the cartridge is squeezed, either manually or by placing it in a stud gun, which causes the post to pierce the body part and engage the nut.
Some existing ear-piercing cartridges suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, repeatable control of the piercing process is extremely important. However, many piercing instruments can be erratic, particularly when the technician is unskilled. To illustrate, the use of the frangible tab in the '744 patent, mentioned above, leads to only discrete control over the ear piercing process. When the earring assembly is squeezed, either holding it in a hand or mounted in an ear piercing instrument, the presence of the frangible tab implies that once the earring assembly is squeezed to the point of breaking the tab, the ear is pierced automatically. Thus, it prevents continuous control of the exact location and timing of the ear-piercing process. Because of the lack of continuous control over the location and timing of the ear-piercing process, the technician who is piercing the ear must use some guesswork to line the stud post with the desired piercing area. Occasionally, this causes the technician to miss the exact location for the piercing. Many other piercing instruments also operate with a snap action that makes errors more likely.
Furthermore, in conventional body piercing instruments, there are two moving halves, one half carrying the post and the other half carrying the nut. The handle or grip of the instrument is attached to one of these halves (usually the post), while the lever or trigger is attached to the other half (usually the nut). Thus, both halves are generally in motion when the piercing is performed. As a consequence, the operation of such instruments can be less stable than needed to assure an accurate and repeatable piercing.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for body piercing systems and methods that provide for simple, accurate, repeatable and safe piercing. Further, there is a need for such designs to be made compatible with existing systems, minimizing additional and separate components and mechanisms. As discussed hereafter, the present invention meets these and other needs.